River Rock Craft.

Happy Friday! This week I've been having some fun working on some crafty items for our little bambina. After Tom and I's "springtime walk" down by the river, I had to go back.. this time with a bucket to collect river rocks to paint!

Here is what I've done:

Tom and I were very picky only to collect rounded semi-flat rocks. This was about an hour of weeding out the good ones.

Thank you Pinterest for the owl inspiration for this lil gal. We found the perfect rock, so she can stand up all on her own!

An ALPHABET for lil ___________ !

It has been super tough for me to hold back on her name lately. We use it all the time at home, but we are still waiting for her to make her debut to announce it.

C is for CLEMSON!!!

Have a happy weekend everyone!

32 wks today!

C.

Location:Crested Butte, United States

Craigslist Treasure.

The search has been on for a dresser to be used in the nursery as a changing table. One of my FAVORITE things to do is go treasure hunting. Give me an antique mall, flea market, garage sale, etc. (consignment shops are alright..) and I am good to go for the day! Seriously, I love it. And I'm finding that as I get older, treasure hunting for furniture comes in at numero uno... clothes a close second. However, having moved to the land of far far away... we have nothing of the sort. No treasure hunting to be done here unless we go out and pan for gold.

SO... as you might imagine finding a dresser for the nursery was a bit tricky. My sister Amanda just visited and we needed to pick her up in Denver... I for one, was not going to let this opportunity go to waste. I did my research on Denver's antique malls, Craigslist, and also dressers for sale on Etsy. After much deliberation, I found this dresser on Craigslist and decided I really like the looks of it. Tom and I drove straight to the sellers house when we got into Denver... Found out not only does it look nice, but is made well too! Tom's brother-in-law has a big hand in Thomasville furniture... and low and behold... it's a Thomasville dresser! Currently Tom is stripping it and we are painting it to match the nursery. What a treasure... and only a hundred! I can't wait to see it in the nursery!! :D

Happy treasure hunter.

C.

Location:Escalante St,Crested Butte,United States

Springtime Walk.

31 weeks and walking! I'm really trying to keep the last 9 weeks of pregnancy's weight gain to a minimum... but what will be will be. And I can't help a chocolate craving or two :) We are just so excited that we are seeing 60 degree days here - at 9,500 ft elevation the warm days have shown up in record time and everyone is LOVING it. My walks are the best part of each day! Today's walk was a fun one... Tom and I did our regular CB South loop and then headed down to a nearby river spot. I enjoy sitting by the river and just thinking and listening... and exploring! Today I found some super cool rocks! yea! ha! I have a new crafting project in mind for them and Tom and I both walked home with handfuls. Here a few pics Tom got on his iPhone. It was such a beautiful day.



 

My new favorite spot!!

And lucky for me... it's soooo close to home!!

C.

Location:Crested Butte, United States

Tom & Tina: the Lumberjacks

This was from several weeks ago...

to be continued... :)

C.

Location:Crested Butte, United States

Little Baby Tom

This is Tom on the day he was born :)

We can't wait to meet our princess!

C

Dad's Visit.

Hello. I am a Daddy's girl. I still hold his hand and cuddle up to him on the couch. Tom probably felt a little neglected during his visit, but I know he was happy Dad was here too! They got some male bonding in, which was nice.

Dad got into town around noon on Friday and we went straight to our ultrasound appointment. Afterwards we came back to the house and hung out for a bit before we went into town for dinner at the best pizza place in town - The Secret Stash. Dad brought me some goodies from back home... we have quite the SC rivalry going on in our household back home between Clemson and Carolina (USC). Dad and my brother Nick are the only Gamecocks.... so of course Dad thought it was pretty great when he arrived with our baby's first USC t-shirt!


Mom didn't realize it, being a huge Clemson fan and all... but she did send me three new pieces of maternity clothing... all USC colors... so Dad also got a kick out of that. :)


On Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and then headed for the outdoors for a hike! My Dad's entire career has been based in the outdoor sporting goods business, working for large companies such as Bass Pro Shops, Shakespeare / Pure Fishing in a variety of capacities. Dad certainly brought his girls up to love the outdoors... And let's just say he is excited to get back to Crested Butte when a little more of the snow has melted so he can do a little fishing and climb to some higher elevations.

Dad has a thing with road signs on his blog... so naturally...

Tom and I at our spot... where Dad gathered a few new stones for his rock collection.

The very first ski lift in Colorado.

Whetstone Mountain from our hike (same mtn. from our windows at the house)

After our hike we played Rummicube! A family favorite. Playing by grandma's rules :) Just killing some time before we headed into town to give Dad a tour. After we showed him the ski area, we headed back down to town where one of the big winter events was taking place... Big Air On Elk. The weekend is spent covering the streets with snow and making a big jump for skiers being pulled behind snowmobiles to jump over and do tricks. Then we went and ate dinner at The Last Steep. A lovely time was had by all :)









Dad's flight left Sunday afternoon out of Denver.... so he woke up early and drove back to the city. It was a quick trip... a side trip from his business trip... but I can't tell you how happy I was to see my Daddy. And only 2 more months and I'll be seeing him again, with a little baby in my arms. :)

C

Location:Crested Butte, United States

Hello Sweetness: the Latest and Greatest.

And here I go... right back to more of everything baby. During my Dad's visit we were able to schedule an ultrasound. I felt super spoiled having the two most important men in my life glued to the ultrasound screen pointing and smiling at each little baby feature we got to see. My Dad held my hand and I saw his eyes tear up once or twice. It has been hard living in Colorado and wanting to share this entire experience with my family in the Carolinas... so this was an extra special moment that I was thrilled to have.

On top of getting to see our baby and hear her heartbeat (special treat for Papa)... We got some fantastic news!! The reason for so many ultrasounds is our doctor has been tracking the growth of a fibroid I have in my uteran wall... being so close to my cervix and the size that it WAS... was cause for our doctor to believe a ceceran section may be necessary. However!! Our last ultrasound showed the fibroid was shrinking in size and a natural birth is now back in the playing cards!! Whoo Hoo!!!!

Here she is:

those are Tom's toes :)

Happy and Healthy at 29 weeks!

C.

Location:Crested Butte, United States

Hike with Doug & Dawn

Hello to you all. I thought with this post I would take a breather from the "pregnancy madness." Lately it feels as if it is all I can think or talk about. It is hard for me to believe that less than nine months ago my world didn't revolve around the arrival of a baby.

Here I would like to introduce you to our sweet friends Doug and Dawn. Tom has known these two for years, but just getting to know them myself I now have the pleasure of calling them friends.

Dawn and I have become recent walking buddies. Our neighborhood is scattered with walkers, bikers, joggers, CC skiiers, dogs and strollers of all shapes and sizes. The community here in Crested Butte is mixed bag of outdoor enthusiaists - everyone has their cup of tea - and with the bluebird skies and warm sunny days we've been having lately everyone is out and about.

I have so enjoyed my time spent with Dawn walking and talking. It's nice to breath the mountain air and have some quality girl time where we can talk about it all - past, present, and future joys and trials that make us who we are.

A few Sundays ago - before the arrival of any guests - Doug and Dawn invited Tom and I on a small hike up Cement Creek Road. Thanks to Doug and Dawn we ended up taking my Dad and sister Amanda on the same hike during their visits. Here are some pictures from that first hike.

This was a great afternoon!!

C

Location:Crested Butte, United States